That night, as we drove out of the parking lot, I realized being a getaway car was better than being the rescue vehicle. One reason was that we only had to run away and hide. Second, there was a faint chance that we would be caught if we just knew where to go.

But it was different now. I was the rescue car and my engines were pumping too much gas at the moment they could suffer a big, blast of engine attack. I prayed that wouldn’t happen because I was yet to make sure that Brian would end up dead or imprisoned.

And Jackie girl better be alive.

As we drove away from Collins Corporations, two police cars were speeding toward the building, probably to find out more about Jackie’s disappearance with the help of the stupid security guard.

Dean just replaced his phone in his pocket. “The HR head is sending me Brian’s information in a moment,” he said.

“We have to go to the police,” George uttered with a nod. “Dannie’s been calling me. Can you call her and update her with what’s happening?”

Dean obliged like a lost child.

I knew he was deeply worried and I bet his fears mirrored mine.

Well, I hate to blame you buddy, but I guess a little of what happened was because of you.

Okay, fine, I shouldn’t have said that. But as I said, when it came to the boys, I could be hard. And I could say the wrong things.

As Dean tried to calm Dannie down with the most soothing voice he could muster at the moment, Georgie sped us to the nearest police station.

“She said she called Troy for help and asked if we should alert Jackie’s parents,” Dean said to Georgie.

“Okay, tell her to do that. They would want to know. And they might know something,” Georgie answered.

Dean nodded and relayed the message back to Dannie.

Once it was over, a long silence lingered between the two of them. Georgie focused on driving as fast as she could. Not one of them said a word until we arrived at the police station.

Georgie climbed out and ran to the entrance of the building followed by Dean.

I swear my engines were still pumping gas even though Georgie turned off my ignition. It must be the adrenalin. Okay, fine, I don’t have an ounce of adrenalin in my body--never did, never will--but I hope you get my point.

I heard Georgie shouting inside and a voice telling her to calm down.

That was not a good sign, was it?

Shit, what the hell are they doing in there?

*****

Jackie stayed very still as she sat down around Brian’s dining table. He was busy cooking something, whistling a happy tune as he did so.

Her eyes went back to the door and her shoulders sagged in defeat.

She tapped her finger against the table, trying to remember the message she sent to Georgie. She couldn’t help but think that she did it wrong. Morse code was hard enough and the stress she was under earlier was not helping.

She practiced more messages she could try to relay if ever she could get another chance to call someone in Brian’s presence.

Giving up, she sighed and thought about the things she should and shouldn’t have done.

She should have placed her phone in her pockets.

She should not have stayed late.

She should have asked Georgie or Dannie to help her with her things.

She should not have made that stupid Facebook account.

She should have resigned months ago before things got complicated.

But it was too late for those thoughts. Right now, she had to find a way to escape.

Slowly, she turned around in her chair to look at Brian’s small apartment again. Her eyes lit up and her heart started to race against her chest when she saw his smartphone beside the television set.

She cleared her throat.

“Can I use the bathroom?” she asked.

Brian turned around with a smile, giving her a shiver. “Of course, princess. This is your home now. You can do whatever you want.”

Jackie willed herself not to flinch. God, he is really crazy. He is so desperate to believe this was the conclusion of his fantasies!

“Thanks. Can we watch the news?”

“Of course,” he said, nodding his head. “The bathroom’s that way,” he added, pointing at the door right beside his bedroom.

Jackie stood up and walked to the television set. She turned it on, her eyes fixed on his phone. As the sound of the television erupted in the room, she quickly pushed the menu button of Brian’s phone and sighed with relief when it could be unlocked with just a swipe.

She looked over her shoulder and jumped in her feet when she saw Brian looking right at her, his face unreadable. Jackie found herself rooted to the ground in fear and anxiety.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

*****

Georgie looked red with anger as she ran out of the police station with Dean behind her looking angrier. He stormed toward me like a tiger.

“I will drive!” Georgie cried out when he tried to open my door. “I know Toto better than you,” she told him as she fished for her ringing phone. “Yes, Tita? Yes, we just came from the police station. They said they will help us but they will not let us come along. Yes, we now know where the address of Jackie’s possible abductor,” she told Jackie’s mother on the phone as she started my engine.

Okay, tell me what happened!

Dean was busily looking at his phone, opening a map application. He opened an email message, copied an address and pasted it back on the search tab of the map.

This better work, guys.

“Hey! Where are you going?” one police officer shouted as he ran out of the station.

“Saving our friend!” Georgie shouted before driving away. “That briefing is taking too long! Are they even aware that first few hours of a kidnapping case is the most crucial?” she spat out, talking to no one in particular. “This is why they are always late in the movies!”

Dean was not listening to her. He was already busy looking at the map. “I know his place. Let’s take the Gatuslao road.”

Georgie nodded. Two patrol cars were already following us and I was not sure if they were after us to arrest my two passengers for disobeying orders or if they were also headed to the same direction to save Jackie girl.

I would love to vote for the latter one because we could not waste more time.

*****

“Nothing,” Jackie answered in haste.

“I thought you want to go to the bathroom.”

She took a few seconds to relax and keep from stammering. “I wanted to turn on the TV first.”

Brian nodded and the smile returned on his face. “Okay. Make it fast. Dinner is almost ready.”

Jackie forced a smile on her face. “I will. I am famished.”

He turned around and continued working on the stove.

Jackie grabbed his phone and almost ran to the bathroom door. It was now or never! She locked the door as soon as she entered and opened Brian’s phone.

She dialed George’s number again, her thumbs shaking.

“Yes,” her friend answered. Jackie could hear some honking and was that a police car?

“George! It’s me!” she whispered. “Please help me. I really need your help. I don’t know where Brian took me, but we are in his apart--”

“We are on our way, Jackie. Hang on, here, talk to Dean. Calm down, okay?”

What? Who? Dean?

“Jackie, are you hurt?” was Dean’s first question.

Hearing his voice was her breaking point and her tears started to fall. She choked as she answered, “No. Please help me!”

“We are on our way. Which part of the place are you?”

“I am in the bathroom. I am hiding. I just took his phone and he might find out soon. Dean, please help me.”

“I will not let anything happen to you, do you understand? Is the door locked?”

“Yes.”

“Can you hear him?”

She listened for Brian’s activity outside the door. “I guess he is still in the kitchen. Dean, I am afraid. What if he kills me before you get here?”

“Don’t think that, Jackie. Stay alert. You will get out of that place. Where is it exactly? Do you know which floor you are in?”

“Third. Door number 307. Dean, please hurry.”

“Jackie, we are almost there. Can you hear that? That’s the police and they are coming to help.”

“Oh God, I am so afraid.”

“Does his phone have enough battery life?”

She took the phone away from her ear to check. “Yes. Fifty-two percent.”

“Good. Don’t disconnect the call, okay? Now, stay calm. We are almost there. You know how fast George drives.”

Jackie gave a soft smile despite her tears. “Yes.”

“And you know I love you, right?”

Jackie’s tears started to fall even more. “Please, don’t say that right now.”

“I am not saying that because of the situation. An hour ago, I was practicing my speech.”

She knew he was trying to calm her down, but Jackie only wanted to cry harder. “I meant don’t say that right now because I would love to hear it from you once I get out of here. In person. With me alive.”

She could almost see his smile from the other line. “I will. I will.”

“And I do love--” her words were cut off when the knob of the bathroom door turned.

Brian’s voice spoke from the other side of the door. “What did you do, Jackie?”

Jackie’s heart stopped. She knew he knew what she did.

“Jackie?” Dean’s voice was saying but she could not even say a word.

And then she jumped as the banging started.

“What did you do, Jackie?!” Brian shouted behind the door, banging on it with so much force.

“Jackie?” Dean’s voice called once more.

Jackie went to one corner and crouched down on the tiled floor. “Dean, please help me! He’s at the door and he is forcing himself in!”

*****

“George, faster!” Dean said in haste.

“I am trying my best here!”

“He’s about to open the door,” he said, listening to whatever was happening with Jackie.

Oh God, please help her. Help her and keep her safe.

“Jackie, please calm down. We are almost there. If that door opens, try your best to get through it and run. Grab something you could use as a weapon. Do you hear me, Jackie?” Dean said to her, his jaw clenching. “Grab anything. Yes, that’s okay. Hit him with that as hard as you could and whatever weapon he may have, kick it away or grab it from him and use it against him. Just keep your focus. And remember, I love you. We all do. We will do everything, okay? We’re here, Jackie, we just arrived,” he said, opening my door and jumping out of me before Georgie stepped on the breaks.

Dean was already running up the stairs of the apartment building even before the police cars pulled up.

“Hey! You can’t go up there! It is not safe!” the cop shouted after Georgie who was on her way there as well with her knife.

Get that bastard for me, Georgie! My trunk is so ready for a dead body!

“Why can’t they listen?!” the police officer shouted as he ran to the building with his other two colleagues.

*****

Jackie grabbed the barrel of the toilet pump with firm grasp as she tried to calm herself down. Hearing Dean’s fast breathing as he climbed the stairs gave her the strength that she needed. And she could hear the blaring of the police cars outside the building.

But Brian was still banging on the door and it was about to give in. She positioned herself right beside the opening of the door so she could have better access and attack him by surprise.

“Shit!” she heard Dean’s shout. “The door is locked!”

“Let’s take it down,” George’s voice said.

They’re outside. They’re outside, Jackie chanted in her brain.

And that was when the bathroom door finally gave out. Brian swiftly stepped in, his eyes blazing with anger and Jackie made her attack.

She swung the toilet pump from over her shoulder and toward his head. It hit him and before he could recover, she hit him once more and then again and again. He stumbled on the tiled floor and hit his head against the toilet bowl.

“Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! Sick! Bastard!” Jackie cried out as she hit his motionless body five more times.

When he didn’t move, she bent down and grabbed the keys from his pocket.

Jackie shouted in alarm when his hand grabbed his wrist. He groaned, his mind probably reeling with the impact against the toilet bowl, but his grasp was strong.

Dean and George were still banging against the front door, trying to take it down. Someone shouted, “Step aside, you two!”

“The hell we are!” Dean shouted back.

“Let go of me, you sick bastard!” Jackie shouted, making another toilet pump attack. Brian rolled over and Jackie struggled with the keys inside his jeans.

When she finally managed to grab them, she straightened and stomped her heeled shoe on Brian’s back. He shouted in pain and went limp. Jackie ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife.

And then she went to the door.

“I am opening it, I am opening it!” she shouted at Dean and George and whoever else they were with. “Shit, my hands are shaking. Blasted padlocks!” she shouted.

“Stay calm, Jackie. Where is Brian?” Dean asked from the other side of the door.

“He’s sort of unconscious. But he might get up soon.”

“Good. Work with the locks as calmly as you could, Jackie.”

“I am, I am…” she said, working on the first lock. And then the second lock. “There’s freaking four of them!”

As she inserted the key for the third lock, Brian’s raspy voice spoke behind her. “You shouldn’t have betrayed my trust, Jackie.” She whirled around and found him advancing toward her. Blood was running down the right side of his face, his shoulder hunched forward, his eyes manacing.

She ran to the other side of the room, holding the knife before her.

Jackie’s scream alerted Dean and the others outside the door.

The banging started once more and Jackie prayed that two locks down would make the job easier for her rescuers. And it seemed that they were using something heavy to break down that blasted door.

“Brian! Don’t you dare lay one finger on her!” Dean was shouting.

“I swear I will kill you, you bastard!” George shouted.

“Step aside!” a man’s voice ordered and the banging started once more, this time stronger.

“Stay away from me,” Jackie shouted at Brian, her voice shaking. She shook off her high heeled shoes to gain more stability. “I said, stay away from me!”

“You think I will do that, Jackie? You have been saying those words ever since I met you. And look how it ended for the both of us.” His expression changed to a pained one, the shift was almost unnerving. “I was ready to give you everything, Jackie. I thought you wanted this. Why couldn’t you give me the chance to prove to you that I am worth your love?!”

“You are sick, Brian, you need help.”

A creepy sneer crept up his lips again, changing his entire face once more. “I don’t need any help, Jackie. The ones who needs help are the ones who don’t know what they want. I know what I want. And it is you. It has only been you all along, all this time,” he hissed at her, stepping closer. “I am not afraid of that knife or that banging on the door. I don’t care anymore, Jackie, because I only want you.”

“It’s too late, Brian. The police are outside that door. You don’t have any other choice but to give up. Please, just give up,” she pleaded.

He gave a throaty laugh that seeped through Jackie’s nerves, sending a shiver through her spine. “I’d rather die with you than to see you go to that bastard boss of yours, Jackie. I’d rather kill you myself than to see you be with someone else!”

And then he jumped at her, taking her by surprise. The next moment, Jackie found herself being tackled on the ground just as the front door burst open.

She didn’t know what happened next because her vision was obscured by Brian’s face looming over her, his body strapping her on the ground, his hand grasping hers, the one holding the knife, over her head.

“Dean!” she tried to shout.

“Let go of her, you sick bastard!” she heard Dean’s voice shout and she felt Brian’s weight leave her body.

Someone was dragging her by the arm.

George.

“Jackie, Jackie!” she felt a gentle slap against her cheek.

Jackie knew her eyes were open, but she couldn’t see anything clearly. Everything was hazy. Like a movie in a very slow motion. And her ears were ringing.

“Jackie!” This time, a stronger slap followed and it seemed to have pushed the play button and everything snapped back to normal. Jackie blinked.

“George!” she cried out.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She looked down at her hand and she flinched when she realized she was still grasping the knife. She threw it away. George was busy checking her eyes, her arms and her body for any signs of blood or other injuries.

And then she heard the commotion just a few feet away. She turned and saw two policemen trying to pull Dean away from Brian on the ground.

“You bastard!” Dean was shouting as he threw a punch down at Brian on the floor. The two policemen were finally able to pull him away but not without Dean throwing two more kicks against Brian’s side.

“Stop that or I will arrest you!” the policeman shouted at him.

“Dean!” Jackie shouted and he whirled around, his chest heaving and his face full of anger. His expression immediately changed to that of tenderness as he crossed the room to where Jackie was. Within seconds, she was in his arms. “Thank God you are okay.” He leaned away, holding her at arm’s length. “You are okay, right?”

Jackie nodded, causing her head to feel dizzy. “But I might need some rest.” The two policemen were bending over Brian’s motionless body on the floor while another one checked the entire apartment.

Dean roughly pulled her back in an embrace. “I thought I was going to lose you. And I love you. You know that, right?”

Jackie smiled faintly. She saw George rolling her eyes behind Dean as her friend started to get up. “Yes, and I love you too. You know that, right?”

She felt Dean nod his head against her shoulder.

“And that’s not something I cooked up. You know that, right?”

“Yes,” he whispered. “Yes, I know that.”

****

I was greatly disappointed that Brian’s corpse would not grace my trunk. Instead of being placed in a black bag as I had hoped, he was mounted and strapped on a stretcher and wheeled to an ambulance.

But I was glad that Jackie girl was okay.

Two ambulances arrived at the scene just in time it almost surprised me, really. From what I heard, these vehicles would always arrive late.

But of course, Georgie’s colleagues would do anything for her so I saw Dee the ambulance again.

Keep her safe, Dee! I shouted after it as they drove Jackie away with Dean at her side.

Georgie and I followed them to Riverside Medical Center where she parked me right beside Dee.

As Georgie went inside the hospital, I told Dee of the agonizing night I had to suffer because I was nothing but a Volkswagen who could not be heard by a single human being.

*****

Jackie’s parents and sister stayed with her in the hospital that night.

Troy, Miguel and Lee rushed to the hospital with Dannie earlier so they were all cramped inside her room.

None of them moved an inch closer to the door when Jackie insisted that she was okay and that she would be fine with her family.

Sleep took over her fast before she could complain of their presence in the room.

But everything she went through that day must have lingered in her mind because she suddenly shot up in her bed, gasping for air in the middle of the night.

Someone was sitting right beside her bed and she flinched when she felt a hand touch hers.

“Hey, it’s me,” Dean’s croaky voice whispered.

She heaved a sigh of relief and she lay back against her pillow, staring at the ceiling. Her heart was still racing, her brain trying hard to tell her she just had a bad dream.

She looked to her right and saw Dean looking at her with worry, his thumb gently rubbing the back of her hand. Behind him, sitting and sleeping with their heads against the wall were George and Dannie.

“Where’s Mama and Papa?” she asked.

“Your sister took them home. George and Dannie insisted that they take a rest and come back early tomorrow morning.”

“I want to go home tomorrow. I don’t have to stay here in the first place.”

“You need this, Jackie. You know that,” he said strongly.

She did not answer.

“Tell me about it,” Dean’s gentle voice asked.

Jackie turned to look at him. “What?” she asked.

“The dream.”

Jackie sighed. “It was nothing,” she said.

“You have to talk about it, Jackie. I am here. I am listening.”

She did not look at him this time, not wanting to remember. But she had to tell someone. She knew it would help. She swallowed before she opened her mouth to speak. “I dreamed no one got my message, that you guys did not understand the code I sent. And I couldn’t escape. I tried to escape but he…he caught me and drowned me in a bucket full of water. I tried to fight and--I was afraid I was going to die, Dean,” she choked, tears streaming down her face.

She felt his thumb wipe the tears off her face. And she felt his head drawing closer. She turned and he planted his lips against her forehead. Then he bent his head against her, his warm breath brushing her cheek. “You’re not going to die. Maybe in fifty more years or so, but not now. I will not let that happen,” he whispered.

Jackie didn’t find the need to say anything so they stayed like that for a long time, his head resting against hers in the bed.

“I’m sorry,” he said later on.

“For what?” she whispered back.

“None of this would have happened if I just--”

“Shut up. I don’t want to hear anything about anyone blaming themselves. Brian is sick and we could not have done anything about it. Hell, he even passed the psychological exam of the company, right? No one could have known.”

Dean leaned away and looked at her with a smile. “I already told you I love you, right?”

Jackie weakly rolled her sleepy eyes. “You’re being cheesy. Stop that.”

He chuckled and lightly kissed her lips. “I know you like it. Admit it.”

“Shut up,” she snapped, pulling her blanket over her shoulder. “Let me sleep,” she uttered with a smile as she closed her eyes.

“I told you I was practicing my speech earlier before I found out you’ve been taken,” he whispered, not letting the matter drop. “You want to hear it?”

Jackie did not answer and pretended to sleep.

“Jackie, I know you’re awake. Do you want to hear it or not?”

Of course she did! But under better circumstances, of course.

“Jackie,” he called, squeezing her hand in his.

 “What?” she asked, feigning irritation, eyes still closed.

“Do you want to hear it or not?” he asked again.

Jackie finally opened her eyes and looked at him, feeling the longing she had felt for days. She desperately wanted to hear the speech. But not now, she thought. “Yes, but in due time.”

She tried to relay the message through her eyes.

The smile on his face slowly disappeared. “What do you mean in due time?”

Jackie was not sure when or how she decided on it. Maybe it was her impulsive side kicking again. But she knew this was the most important and right impulsive decision she had made.

“Jackie, what do you mean in due time?” Dean repeated, the apprehension apparent in his voice.

Jackie composed herself for a couple of seconds before she said, “I need to have some time for myself.” She looked him in the eyes and forced herself to add, “I need to be by myself for a while, take some time off. I want to stay away for some time, Dean.”

Jackie saw anxiety, confusion and understanding flash in his eyes in just a matter of seconds. “Stay away like going away somewhere?” he asked.

She nodded.

He nodded in understanding, squeezing her hand once more as if silently telling her not to go away but he would understand if she would not heed his plea. “How much time do you need?” he asked.

Jackie sighed. “I don’t know.”